IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors - Gizmodo Comments

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

benjgvps — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:08:44 EDT

I should volunteer at my local science center when they get this tech, I can see me now: Playing Wii on an IMAX screen...

benjgvps

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Daimyo Nintendo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:11:52 EDT

Finally, I can't wait till ALL magnetic tape is extinct. I am loving my blu-ray but hell, I cant wait till optical discs are gone as well. Downloading, Flash media, holographic cards, and solid state hard drives are defiantly the logical way to go. People will always want a physical copy. For me, simply downloading it and knowing it is in my hard drive is not enough. I want a physical copy of it, plain and simply. I bet movies will come on small flash discs like Nintendo DS games...eventually. This IMAX is simply a step in that process. Soon all theatres will use DLP's, Optical discs will be history, and OLED TV's are going to be immensely impressive and accurate in every way.

Daimyo Nintendo

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

uberfu — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:54:02 EDT

@the_sidewinder: tek_nic has it right "digital light processing"

But I have to agree - Digital DLP is redundant Giz!

uberfu

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

jallopy — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:38:43 EDT

Wrong question.
The right question is: "Does it mean that these IMAX movies with all that IMAX goodness would now be available for download on BitTorrent?"

jallopy

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

kc2idf — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:50:29 EDT

So....

Since they will be so massively reducing their production costs, will we see a drop in admission price?

No?

Okay, then.... DO NOT WANT.

Actually, this is kind of interesting timing with something I wrote recently in my blog about charging more for less

kc2idf

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Franssu — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:25:29 EDT

@DJJS: The rainbow effect is a side effect only present in 1-chip DLP projectors, caused by the fact that the R,G and B primary colors are not projected at the same time (a color filter wheel spins before the chip).
DLP cinema projectors have 3 chips, so they don't need a color wheel and therefore aren't subject to rainbow effect.

This switch by IMAX from 70mm film to digital projection seems backwards to me. Unless TI has 8K chips in its sleeve, we're looking at a huge loss of definition.

Franssu

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Xenobiologista — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:06:54 EDT

(Sorry double post)

The thing I'll miss is seeing all those giant strips of film running up and down and back and forth across the projection booths though. It's kinda fun to watch all the apparatus involved.

Xenobiologista

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Xenobiologista — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:05:00 EDT

Bimbotic moment from my sister:
me: I wonder when cinemas in Malaysia are going to switch to digital projectors.
her: Eh? Isn't this digital already though?
me: I don't think so...you can see the spots on the film mah.
her: But at the beginning it said "Dolby Digital"..

Xenobiologista

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

scarbrtj — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:29:36 EDT

The digital DLP projector will help people with the HIV virus, with REM movement problems, see the LED diodes, rotating on UFO objects, on the front of liquid-crystal LCD displays, hooked up to their personal PC computers.

scarbrtj

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

jibbly — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:26:03 EDT

@philipbarrett: Mostly agree with you, but many of those same flea-pits never maintained their film equipment resulting in terrifically mangled viewing experiences.

jibbly

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

philipbarrett — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:19:58 EDT

@leetXcore:

Film still offers much higher resolution and contrast ratios than the best digital video playback & projection systems. Your local flea-pit went DLP for cost savings not because they wanted to give you a treat.

philipbarrett

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

cirby — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:52:32 EDT

They don't have to have ultra-high-res projectors for ultra-high-res video. One of the neat technologies out there in large-venue projection uses multiple projectors with overlapping images. You start with a very high pixel image (for example, 4096 x 2160), slice it up into sub-images, then set up four to nine (or more) projectors, with the overlap managed by dimming the edges of the image from each projector (no obvious seams in the image when done correctly). It's harder to get even luminance across the whole screen, though.

Yes, this is much like the old 35mm slide projection dissolve shows (I've run 27 slide projector setups, and have seen 36 projector shows).

You could also run a super-high-res video image by stacking images, only a fraction of a pixel offset, with each projector being fed every other pixel. Alignment is a pain, though (you need extremely fine adjustments to get the pixel alignment right). It would take four tightly-stacked projectors to do this (to double resolution in each axis), but you get the bonus of more consistent luminosity, with reduced effective resolution (pixels overlap a bit).

cirby

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

heroineworshipper — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:52:16 EDT

The main reason is to reduce cost, not to improve quality. The cumbersome mechanism isn't the problem. The guy sitting in the control room must go. $15 will get U a higher technology theater but only half the quality your parents got for $7.

heroineworshipper

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

heroineworshipper — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:46:14 EDT

Leave it to US to make Canadia's cinematic masterpiece look like shit. Spend the $14 to view a digitally projected 35mm movie & then be sure to watch an IMAX film show before they're gone.

heroineworshipper

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

jibbly — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:25:05 EDT

Agreed, they had better massively raise the resolution for these projectors as 70mm IMAX film is HUGE.

jibbly

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

yablunk — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:02:33 EDT

how much exactly does an imax theater cost?

yablunk

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

WolfDemon — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:59:33 EDT

Wow, I expected a lot more bashing of that because of the advantages film has over digital...

WolfDemon

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

seip719 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:55:56 EDT

@leetXcore: I'm a projectionist in Philadelphia and we mostly use film still because not all the new films are available in digital format on release date.

seip719

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

ChootinDaChit — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:52:02 EDT

Interesting. I wonder if they've developed a new chip with more mirrors on it, or if they'll somehow use multiple chips in combination to add to the resolution? IMAX film stock is HUGE, so their existing digital cinema engine with "2.2 million mirrors" they tout in the press release (barely higher than 1080p resolution) is just not going to look very sharp on that monster theater screen.

ChootinDaChit

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

noamjamski — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:07:33 EDT

It will be Michael Bay because he only likes things that are AWESOME!

noamjamski

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

j4sk868 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:52:20 EDT

GREAT. Now when they show standard films they wont look like shit on the giant screen. awesome. should be super sharp and crisp. pumped!

j4sk868

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

SigmundTheSeaMonster — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:40:16 EDT

I hope they include Dramamine for the motion-sickness DLp induces...(Blechhhh)

SigmundTheSeaMonster

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

bandit — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:26:04 EDT

Now if they can shrink the cameras into digital HD-based systems, could you imagine the footage they could get? Anyone see that movie where they lugged the IMAX cameras up Everest?

bandit

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Julien321 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:01:13 EDT

Unless they wait on 4K chips or go with 4K LCoS) it will be a lower resolution mistake to go digital just yet. Even 4K is not up to the task of getting the full resolution out of IMAX's large format film.

Julien321

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

fastm3driver — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:59:07 EDT

@fallenturtle: Ah yes, that would also fix the rainbow problem. Not that that's a problem.

fastm3driver

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

fastm3driver — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:57:40 EDT

Sweet, giant rainbows!! Sounds kind of gay.
There I had to say it.
I'm curious what the light source is. If it uses multi-colored bulbs like Samsung's LED lit screens there would be no spinning wheels and thus no rainbows.

fastm3driver

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

rainmkr — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:52:26 EDT

@leetXcore: have you -even- seen an IMAX projector set up?

rainmkr

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

mechanisma22 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:50:04 EDT

@DJJS the rainbow effect is causes by a spinning color wheel on home DLP projectors. The IMAX projectors will have 3 different RBG DLP chips.

I wonder what they will do to occupy all that space that's currently used by the film projectors? I wonder what kind of computer system would store those movies and handle all that bandwidth.

Does this also affect Omni-theaters like the one in Fort Worth TX Science Museum?

mechanisma22

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

fallenturtle — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:49:56 EDT

@DJJS: The Rainbow effect is a result of the color wheel used with singlechip DLP projectors. Higher end DLP projectors, of which I would assume the IMAX projectors would be, use 3 DLP chips, one for red, green, and blue thus negating the need for a colorwheel.

fallenturtle

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

leetXcore — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:48:16 EDT

They've been using film up until now?

Even my shitty little movie theater in my shitty little town has moved up to DLP.

leetXcore

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

deadatbirth440 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:46:50 EDT

they should be using DILA...NASA does...but what do they know right?

deadatbirth440

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

Noobs-R-Us — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:46:03 EDT

Mark Cuban?

Noobs-R-Us

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

the_sidewinder — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:37:28 EDT

Digital Digital Laser Projector Projectors?

the_sidewinder

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

tek_nic — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:37:24 EDT

Wait... Digital Digital light processing? That's almost as sweet as my NIC card. har har

tek_nic

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

DJJS — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:33:05 EDT

This sound great..
But i know of people having the (rainbow) effect that DLP Causes on
(certain people)?

But cant wait!

DJJS

IMAX Theaters to Ditch Film, Use Digital DLP Projectors

DustyButt — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:28:26 EDT

I just saw "U2 in 3D" in Baltimore...

Great experience. I hope IMAX stays around for a while.
The screen is freakishly huge and it was an awesome cinematic experience.

DustyButt